Why Overwatch won the Game of the Year 2016 award and Uncharted 4 didn’t

The Game Awards 2016 happened December 1, and many people, yet can’t understand why Uncharted 4 didn’t win the main award of this ceremony, but instead, the multiplayer arena game “Overwatch”. And here is why…

Memorable Things

Uncharted 4 is, in fact, a very good game, however, it isn’t a memorable game, there haven’t any part of the game that will truly mark the history of the games, many people will play it and think “well what a nice game” and put it aside or sell it. Ok, some people will care about the multiplayer of the Uncharted 4, what also is not bad. However, Overwatch since from the begin, all of the characters have a memorable charisma, almost all voices lines are really easy to pick since the “Nerf this” from the character “D.va” as the famous “Boop” from the new character “Sombra” that quickly spread through the internet. Not only about voice lines, but each character has some very unique characteristics that make the player feel very comfortable with all of them. Not talking only about the character, but the idea of the “Play of the Match” itself in Overwatch became something that certainly will be used for several games in the future.

The Game Mechanic

In Overwatch, for being a multiplayer game, all characters are ready to be selected and each character is very different, each hero has your own way and style of playing the game. Even if you are terrible with First Person Shooters, Overwatch has a place for you, many heroes don’t require a good aim to be good in this game. When you understand a hero, what this hero can do alone and with other heroes in combo, it feels like to start a different new game. Also, Overwatch has some constant updates with changes in the game mechanic. Every season adding at least a hero and a new map. So with all this Overwatch away has something new to introduce and keep the player playing it. While in Uncharted 4 the game is about shoot, hide, shoot more, drive a car sometimes, jump walls and jump more walls for 8 hours and is it, don’t get me wrong, in Uncharted 4 this process is very well made, the narrative happens in the meantime in a very natural way, however, this game mechanic itself is very limited, when in comparison with Overwatch.

Narrative Story

In Uncharted 4 you don’t only play a game, but also you get immersed into a plot to “save your brother”. The story in Uncharted is not complex, and everything that happens in the plot has an obvious reason in taking the player to the midst of shootings or to have a destination to reach somehow. The combination of narrative and gameplay in Uncharted is very well made. In Overwatch it is different, there haven’t any narrative story in the game, so if the player wants to understand how the character “Tracer” can moves “through time” the player needs to leave the game and find it out in some transmedia of the game. So, in Overwatch, in-game you will just play it, without any visible story, however, all characters in the game have a more complex story that isn’t directly in the game. We don’t know how much does it affect The Game Awards if it is a positive or a negative point.

Conclusion

So if you read everything up, you know now that when you finish Uncharted 4, you know “that was a good game”, the plot ends the game very well, the game at all was very fun, the characters are amazing. But, that is all, you are tired with that game mechanic and it is the end, you even can enjoy the multiplayer, but there haven’t anything more different to try or to see. While in Overwatch most of the seasons are like a “new game” with some new fantastic heroes very well worked and balanced. It is not about the game be Multiplayer or not, both are a game, the concept of being “defeated” in a moment when you play it makes this game be a game and for being a game both have the right to win the main award, and one game being “more game than another” deserve more this award.